


And All the King's Men

by zarabithia



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Pre-New 52
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-16
Updated: 2007-07-16
Packaged: 2019-05-20 20:45:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14901689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: Following the events of JLA 10 and Flash 13, Clark and Bruce have a conversation about what used to be.





	And All the King's Men

"Are you alright, Bruce?"

It’s a question that, by all rights, Clark should have stopped asking long ago. He’s certainly long since stopped expecting an answer.

And… there are times, mostly in the aftermath of a battle that didn’t quite go as planned, or during one of the long, silent patrols in which Metropolis feels as unforgiving and cold as Gotham ever did… that Clark is certain he’s given up trying to figure out the answer to the question he’s just asked.

But being in the cave makes him nostalgic. The combination of the tiny feet scrapping across rock and the quiet hum of the computer system, mixed in with the warring smells of the cave and the human scents of blood and sweat bring back memories that accompany Clark on every patrol and every dream, no matter how much he tries to block them.

But perhaps most damning of all is the vulnerability Bruce offers to him on this night, cowl pushed back revealing a swelling on the left side of Bruce’s jaw, highlighted by the soft glow of the computer beside him.

It’s a posture that fools Clark into thinking he could, just this once, reach out again and bring back everything they used to share.

He’s not quite stupid enough to try. But he is foolish enough to ask a question he never expected a response to.

Tonight, Bruce surprises him.

"I’m glad Wally is back. He was… _is_ one of Dick’s team. I was just expecting someone else."

"Me too."

"It would be good…to be able to put _our_ team back together again."

Clark thinks of a nation’s capital ravaged by Amazons and the accompanying stain on the reputation of the first woman he would want at his side in battle. He thinks of a Flash legacy cut prematurely short twice over. He thinks of four Robins; one dead, one lost, one broken, and one … no longer as close as Clark had always thought he’d be. He thinks of the son he buried before he ever had the pleasure to know him, and of the second son depending on him not to mess up as badly this time around. He thinks of the Sinestro Corps and of the year that was supposed to heal wounds but appears to have only ripped a deeper gaping wound into already tender flesh.

"Yes," he says to Bruce. "Things were …simpler then."

"They were _better_ ," Bruce corrects.

Clark remembers of the feel of Kevlar beneath his skin, and of the urgent fingers pulling at his own costume. He remembers the scent of the cave overwhelming his senses as Bruce’s greedy, wanting hands pushed him up against rock that would have torn human flesh as the human took advantage of his lover’s stronger Kryptonian skin. He remembers the first Robin’s playful smile, and the second one’s confident smirk playing peek-a-boo from behind Batman’s cape.

He remembers unfinished races with the first Flash he’d called teammate, and races that should have been with that man’s grandson.

"Yes," he agrees readily. "They were."

Bruce looks at him a long time by Bruce standards, and what would have felt like an eternity to either Flash they’d lost. It’s long enough that Clark has time to re-remember every treasured moment from the better days. "But I suppose we shouldn’t ever be so foolish as to believe we can have those days back."

"I learned that lesson a long time ago," Clark says, not meaning to be hurtful, but Bruce’s downward gaze makes him wonder if he had been, anyway.

"Tomorrow we bury another Flash, another of Tim’s friends," Bruce replies when he looks up again, and Clark feels the wall go back up between them when those steely eyes fixate on him. "And you have to get back to Metropolis. Tell Lois I said hello."

The wall was never there between them in the better days. But in all the time that has passed, Clark has never quite figured out how to get past it.

No additional secrets are revealed to him as he nods his agreement, and the wall that shouldn’t be doesn’t budge.

On the way back to Metropolis, his wife, and son, Clark tries to turn his attention away from the days that used to be.

He’s almost successful and this is the one instance in which almost is good enough for Superman.


End file.
